


hwang-kim celebrating services.

by springup



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Birthday Cake, M/M, Private Investigators, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-07-28 18:37:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16247486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/springup/pseuds/springup
Summary: Seungmin looks at the pretty, little cake that has just been placed on the end of the hotel bed, just past where his laptop is balanced on top of his outstretched legs, by an overly enthusiastic Hyunjin. His friend looks a little bit like the cat who finally caught the canary. Large hands outstretched in front of his body as if to say “look at what I brought in!” and twinkling brown eyes expectingly searching Seungmin’s face for any sort of reaction to show what he thinks of his gift.





	hwang-kim celebrating services.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [starpuke](https://archiveofourown.org/users/starpuke/gifts).



The evening sun is beginning to dwindle down beyond the cream curtains, slowly lowering the city into another starry night, by the time Hyunjin returns from his outing. Seungmin is slow to reach for the earlier discarded remote that hides somewhere in the folds of the hotel duvet while his friend rattles the knob of the door several more times. For the last twenty or so minutes, Seungmin’s mind had been wandering off, leaving him almost completely unable to focus on the multitude of windows of word documents full of notes and pictures and information revolving around their current missing persons case. So instead of letting himself drown in the murky waters of his own mind and the heavy pressure of their case, he half watched the televised interview of a new, up and coming rap trio that seems oddly familiar to him. He’s filled with an unexplainable sense of nostalgia towards them but it’s all acutely forgotten once Hyunjin is finally able to get the room door cracked open enough to wedge his shoulder in, push the door open with said shoulder and enter the room with his back facing Seungmin. 

He raises an eyebrow in question, more out of habit than anything considering the fact at this point Hyunjin can’t even see him. He spends a few spare moments trying to see around the broad expanse of Hyunjin’s shoulders to figure out what exactly he’s cradling in his arms so preciously or what’s in the white, plastic convenience store bag that hangs from his arm. But he still indulges his friend when the taller asks him to close his eyes; preserving the surprise for a few seconds longer. Seungmin lets his tired eyes flutter shut behind his preferred gold and round-rimmed glasses that sit on the bridge of his nose. Keeping them squeezed tightly shut until he feels a slight weight dip the end of the bed and Hyunjin’s gentle yet excited voice tells him he can open his eyes again.

He finds his surprise in the form of a small cake and one of Hyunjin’s signature, blinding smiles.

Seungmin looks at the pretty, little cake that has just been placed on the end of the hotel bed, just past where his laptop is balanced on top of his outstretched legs, by an overly enthusiastic Hyunjin. His friend looks a little bit like the cat who finally caught the canary. Large hands outstretched in front of his body as if to say “look at what I brought in!” and twinkling brown eyes expectingly searching Seungmin’s face for any sort of reaction to show what he thinks of his gift. 

“It’s February,” he says dumbly, “and it’s not my birthday?” His eyebrows pinch together as he glances between the cake and his friend to assess him and possibly make sense of what exactly possessed him to spend his own money on a cake that neither of them really needed. He quickly comes to the conclusion that no matter why Hyunjin had purchased the cake in the first place, it had probably been out of the goodness of his golden heart. That’s just the kind of person Hyunjin was, someone who had a heart too big and kind and sensitive for the kind of cruel people and even crueler world they lived in. 

Hwang Hyunjin had a heart that is too, undoubtedly, good for someone like Kim Seungmin.

Yet there Hyunjin stood, smiling back at Seungmin like he was the best thing in the world. He figures that maybe this is the world’s way of trying to apologize for everything that has happened to him and everything that is going to happen in the future. It’s like the world figured that as long as Seungmin had Hyunjin by his side he’d be okay, no matter what the circumstances were or what hardships they faced- and Seungmin muses that maybe the world was right for once.

“No, it’s not!” Hyunjin’s shiny, dark hair bounces as he nods in confirmation, effectively drawing Seungmin back out of his daze. The smile on his plush lips is gentle but at the same time is still so, so very blinding. But there’s still a shadow of sadness hidden in the corners of his lips that Seungmin tries his hardest not to dwell on for too long. “But I passed by this very cute, little mom-and-pop bakery on my way back from my meeting with Miss Jung, which went really well by the way, and we should be getting the cctv tapes from the camera at the entrance of the diner, the one that faces the hotel that Heo Solji was staying at when she was last seen, within the next, maybe, two days!” Seungmin finally breaks into a smile, causing Hyunjin’s own to grow impossibly brighter, his eyes crinkling from the force.

There’s a surge of pride that swells in the dead center of his chest over the fact Hyunjin was able to do so well on something so important to their case on his own, when just a few years ago he would often doubt his own abilities and place in their line of work, along with his place in their makeshift team. There was very little good that came out of Seungmin’s disappearing act, but Hyunjin blossoming into an even more amazing, clever and independent detective was the sliver of a silver lining that Seungmin desperately clung to. Hyunjin begins to lower his arms from where they had still been outstretched and tucked his hands into the pockets of the skinny jeans he still hadn’t outgrown, rocking nervously on his heels. He finally finishes his explanation, albeit a little more bashful than he started it, “and since I missed your twenty-third birthday, I thought maybe we could celebrate it now, with a cake, like we always do. Together, like we always do.”

Seungmin can feel his throat constrict and stomach twist painfully in response to the way Hyunjin seems to still blame himself for Seungmin’s disappearance that had happened all those months ago. Despite all of the conversations and hours spent promising his best friend that it wasn’t his fault and apologizing over and over and over again. Seungmin still tries to hold up the little smile that had been sitting gingerly on his lips, though. Not wanting to damage the fragile mood of the evening any more than he felt like he already had.

Hyunjin busies himself with placing little wax candles in the soft yellow and pink frosting of the cake while complaining about all the effort it took to get the elderly woman who owns and runs the diner to actually give in to allowing them to come back for a copy of the specific security tapes they needed and how he’ll probably never gain the feeling back in his left cheek again, after all of the pinching it endured from Miss Jung. 

The moment seems to be delicate and surreal. It almost felt like they were transported back two or three years, back when everything was much better and more innocent than it is now. Except there’s telltale signs of reality that won’t release Seungmin from its chilling grip. Reminders that won’t let him forget that he’s not in the past, that won’t let him indulge in his little fantasy. Signs like the way Hyunjin’s dark, ebony hair is much shorter now than it ever was or how his face is full of the sharp edges of adulthood rather than the familiar, soft curves of his old childish charm. He’s still as handsome as ever, which comes as no surprise to anyone and especially not to Seungmin, Hyunjin just looks more grown up, more mature. 

He can’t help but let his focus and eyes rest completely on Hyunjin, watching as worn hands cup the last of the cheerfully colored candles to keep them alight. Pulling away and easily launching into a terrible yet hilarious version of “happy birthday” that hurts his ears and makes Seungmin laugh so hard he can hardly breathe.

Seungmin’s smile feels more natural, more organic from then on.

Hyunjin’s voice gets even more soothing and lovely as he tells the younger to make a wish. He’s careful to pull the cake further away from Seungmin so that he can push his laptop off of his lap and move himself closer to Hyunjin and the cake. Once he’s settled enough, Seungmin quickly closes his eyes and leans in. He can hear Hyunjin’s laugh twinkle like bells in his ears as he scrunches up his nose in concentration and eventually leans down to blow out the excessive twenty-three tiny flames. 

He still hears the laughter echoing in Hyunjin’s voice when his friend asks him what he wished for. 

“You just want me to tell you so that my wish can’t come true.” Hyunjin graces him with another gorgeous smile in response. The smile morphing into something sharper when Hyunjin winks, his beauty mark twinkling like a single stray midnight star. Seungmin’s gaze adverts to the cake, idly pulling out the candles to distract his mind from going on and wax-poetic about said beauty mark (he totally, absolutely hasn’t done that multiple times before. Absolutely not.). “Did you get any silverware along with a cake, twenty some odd candles and the most helpful piece of information and evidence for the case or would that have been too much for you, Detective?”

(He never ends up vocalizing that he wished for the both of them to be together and happy, forever.) 

He gets a snort in response. The older leaning over the bed and cake to shove gently at Seungmin’s thin shoulder. “What do you take me for?” He asks. Strutting back to where he had dropped the grocery bag along with his shoes and the few things from his pockets. It takes a few seconds of rustling around before Hyunjin makes a victorious noise in the back of his throat. The older stands back up straight, asking a smug “a rookie?” over his shoulder as he does so. Turning to proudly show off the contents of the bag, two bubblegum pink cartons of strawberry milk in one hand and two packets of cheap, plastic forks and knives and paper napkins in the other. 

Seungmin rolls his eyes and bows his head down mockingly, “I am so very, truly sorry, Detective Hwang, please accept my sincerest and deepest apologizes for having doubted your talents and last minute planning skills. I hope you can find it within your heart to forgive me, even if I am truly unworthy of such things.” 

Hyunjin’s voice is chalked full of a faux seriousness that matches the nearly solemn expression painted across his elegant, dainty features as he nods sagely, placing the hand full of milk over where his heart lays. “Kim Seungmin, your apology has moved me. I am ever so thankful that someone in this city appreciates all the work I do!” He nods again, this time self satisfied, before breaking out into a giggle. Which then, like a domino effect, has Seungmin giggling back at his friend’s dramatics. Eyes squeezing closed out of pure and unadulterated glee. 

In this moment, he really does feel like a teenager again. Instead of being twenty-three and stuck in a shabby motel room that smells vaguely of old mold and chlorine, he’s newly nineteen again and sitting on the dirty concrete curb of the twenty-four hour convenience store, completely high off of the excitement of solving another one of their first cases and the way Hyunjin laughs way too hard at one of his jokes despite the fact they both know it’s painfully unfunny.

He opens his eyes in time to watch Hyunjin walk back to the bed and slowly crawl up towards his spot against the small mountain of pillows he had created, careful not to jostle the cake or Seungmin as he moves along. Handing over the milks and silverware to an eager Seungmin, who rustles with the clear straw attached to one of the pink boxes so that he’s able to get to his overly-sweet drink, blinking owlishly at his friend as he sips almost childishly. Hyunjin seems oblivious to the man studying him at close proximity, or maybe he’s just used to the weight of Seungmin’s curiosity, moving to get under the body-warmed sheets and getting comfortable. Hyunjin ends up settling on his side and resting most of his body weight and warmth against Seungmin. He muses that it feels right to be like this; to be pressed against a familiar body with a chin hooked over his shoulder, which now is a little too thin to be comfortable, while Hyunjin’s eyes scan over his mess of notes for something that he could’ve possibly missed. While there’s something undeniably different about being curled up together like this, the younger still lets out a satisfied sigh, pulling the cake onto Hyunjin’s now still lap before melting even further against his friends chest. It felt almost as if simply being against Hyunjin was enough to ease all of the previous tension out of his body. 

Seungmin’s breath catches in his throat when Hyunjin begins to giggle in his ear, chest below him rumbling and shaking with a shuttered intake of breath. Even his literal heart seems to be under the spell of one Hwang Hyunjin. His normally steady heart begins to sprint within its restraints of his chest when he feels one strong arm wrap around his waist, anchoring him impossibly closer to Hyunjin. “Alright, Detective Kim,” he starts, other arm outstretched to take a fork to the pastel frosting off of the top of the late-birthday cake. “Show me what we have to work with!”

“Alright, Detective Hwang,” he mirrors back, suddenly giddy and eager in a way he hasn’t been since the beginning of their private eye days. “Let’s crack this case.”

**Author's Note:**

> wowwww would you look at that i wrote something after [looks at watch] uhhhhh eight months.. if there’s any mistakes.. oh well we die like unbetaread men! but you can Find Me at @ changblnnles on twitter! thank you for reading!!!!


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